For people who enter Montreal by the Samuel-De Champlain bridge or the Victoria bridge, the image they have of downtown Montreal is no longer the same since the erection of the two new 200-meter towers height that real estate developer Broccolini is in the process of completing just west of Square Victoria. “We created the new postcard image of Montreal,” proudly says Roger Plamondon, President of Broccolini Real Estate Group.
It’s hard to miss in downtown Montreal the new National Bank tower and 700 Saint-Jacques – or Victoria sur le Parc – a tower of 500 condos with 300,000 square feet of office space and of 30,000 square feet of retail space.
These two new towers adjoin a third 34-storey building, 628 Saint-Jacques, also erected by Broccolini Real Estate Group in the quadrilateral formed by Saint-Jacques Street, Robert-Bourassa Boulevard and Notre-Dame and Gauvin.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The head office of the National Bank, last September
Broccolini, which started out as a construction company, embarked on industrial and commercial development in the 1980s before expanding its activities in real estate by acquiring land that it puts itself in value to sell to its customers or groups of investors.
Roger Plamondon joined the construction company in 2007 as a consultant to help shape the Broccolini Real Estate Group as we know it today.
“We find sites, we develop them, we build and we sell our projects once they have been completed. For several years now, Broccolini has been trying to keep a stake in the projects we are developing,” says Roger Plamondon.
Since the early 2000s, Broccolini has created specific funds to ensure the financing of its projects, limited partnerships which have raised up to now 2 billion in capital.
“When I joined Broccolini, we were starting fund number 2, now we have reached fund number 8. We have a core of 50 to 80 large investors who follow us quite a bit in each of the new funds which have a duration of life of 10 years”, explains the president of the Real Estate Group.
Be bold
Broccolini Construction ranks third in Quebec, behind Pomerleau and EDC, in the sector, but the Broccolini Real Estate Group today generates nearly 50% of the company’s total sales.
“The industrial sector is still very important to us. We built a dozen distribution centers for Amazon in Quebec and Ontario that we easily sold to pension funds. We built our new distribution center in Beauharnois for IKEA,” points out Roger Plamondon.
Broccolini also distinguished herself by carrying out the construction of the new Radio-Canada building, which was inaugurated last September. But Roger Plamondon is particularly proud of the progress made by the Real Estate Group in the mixed office and residential sector.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
The new Radio-Canada building
“We first built L’Avenue in front of the Bell Center in 2017, a 50-storey condo tower, then we assembled and acquired the land where we began construction of 700 Saint-Jacques. and National Bank head office in 2018.
“We paid 100 million for the land, which was the biggest transaction of the time, a transaction that some considered extravagant,” recalls the president.
But the current context of land prices in downtown Montreal shows that it was ultimately not that expensive to pay, since Broccolini paid $66 per square foot in 2018, compared to $285 per square foot for land that the group recently acquired rue Sherbrooke.
The Le Sherbrooke building will have more than 500 condos in what is called the Golden Square Mile district. It’s really a nice project.
Roger Plamondon
Roger Plamondon has spent almost his entire professional life doing real estate development in the various management positions he has held.
A graduate in real estate science from the University of Quebec in Montreal and holder of an MBA in finance from HEC Montreal, the specialist began his career in 1973 at CN before taking care of the Steinberg supermarket real estate portfolio. He was subsequently responsible for the opening of the first six Réno-Dépôt in Quebec and the post-merger between Costco and Club Price.
“I later joined The Home Depot as Operations Manager for Quebec and Ontario. We increased the number of Home Depots in Quebec from 4 to 20 while I was there,” explains Roger Plamondon.
After 15 years at Broccolini, Roger Plamondon will step down as President of the Real Estate Group next June, while remaining very attentive to the next steps in real estate development in Montreal.
“We need to increase the density of the housing stock. It is better to develop in height with parks and green spaces than to occupy everything on the ground. Developers must incorporate a portion of affordable housing into their projects, but it will be necessary to clearly define what is affordable.
“Because what we see today is that there are not enough offers and that demand is constantly increasing. We have to find a way to work with the City, we have no choice,” agrees the promoter.
